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My blog has gotten so behind. I’ve just been a bit mad busy lately and haven’t had the chance to actually sit and write about life… I have a lot of notes on my phone and posts that I’ve been intending on writing but ehhhh just time has gotten away from me. Excuses aside, here’s some stuff I’ve been loving.

Football: I was really enjoying the World Cup. Handily at Wiggle we had the TV on all the time so we could watch (while working) the matches that went on throughout the day so I felt quite on top of what was going on.And it was so much fun watching the England game against Croatia in a packed out pub. I’ve never watched a match like that before and hearing everyone chanting was just such a thrill. I’ve never felt so emotionally invested in a World Cup before and that match was both a fantastic and devastating experience. It was sad that England got kicked out but I’m so proud for how far we got.What really made me laugh though was in the pub two girls were doing their nails. I mean, seriously.

Love Island: Yes, yes judge away. I’m aware it’s potentially showcasing everything that is wrong with our society and it’s vacuous and pointless. That said, I enjoy watching it. I’m not ashamed and happily admit I tune in for every episode. I assume it’s why people enjoy watching horror movies. They obviously don’t want to be in a similar experience but they enjoy watching it. I don’t need to engage my brain, I can switch off and just let the ridiculousness play out in front of me.

My mum watched an episode with me and it was beyond hilarious. The comments (“Anna, do they have nookie on TV? In the same room?” and “Are they wearing bikinis or knickers?”) just made the whole experience another level of entertainment. It was like my very own version of Gogglebox. She quite got into it by the end – Team Danni and Jack all the way!

Cinema Visits: Speaking of horror movies, I saw Hereditary the other week. Why oh why did I do this to myself? In my mind the rationale went like this: I’ve never seen a horror movie in the cinema and people say that it’s a thrill to watch it amongst lots of other people reacting similarly to you… plus I knew I’d never watch it at home and it had had some good reviews (Mark Kermode aside). I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever felt so stressed, terrified and unhappy in the cinema before. I spent a vast chunk of time trying to embed myself into the seat, trying to escape, and then hiding my face with my hands. I’m not lying when I say that that night I had to sleep with a light on. GENUINE levels of fear. The movie Tag however was very funny and I enjoyed it immensely. There was one joke that was a bit distasteful but otherwise it was genuinely laugh out loud. I really enjoyed it.

Nachos: I have quite a weird obsession at the moment with nachos. I literally can’t stop craving them. I don’t know where this has come from but I just keep wanting them. I go through these weird food crazes where I obsess over a certain type of food and eat it to death (though apples, cake and porridge are long-standing fixtures in my life and have never grown old to me).The standard would be tortilla crisps covered in melted cheese, a sprinkling of jalapeños, a bit of sour cream and some salsa. The pinnacle of heavenly nacho experience however is added pulled pork/beef chilli, big blobs of guacamole and maybe some refried bean action. But this is just me being extra picky. God I love it.

Paul Sinton-Hewitt’s parkrun talk: I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this on the blog yet! So PSH, the parkrun Founder, came to the Southampton Solent University to do a talk on how parkrun got started. I was on it like a car bonnet. Obviously I love parkrun so this was right up my street.My friend Joe and I went together and we met up with the lovely Rebecca (from Lee-On-Solent parkrun fame) and her husband and we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening hearing all the inside scoop on parkrun.I had never properly heard how it had started – and never knew it had been originally called Timetrial before someone advised him to change the name. And I never knew that Coca-Cola have attempted three times to sponsor them (with an “open chequebook”!) and they’ve turned them down each time because the ethos of the company doesn’t mesh well with parkrun. How cool is that??PSH was very inspiring but I also saw a side of him I didn’t really know about before (not that I know him properly at all… just bits and pieces I’ve heard). He’s quite ruthless and has a steely determination. I mean, I guess he had to be in order to keep it going and to make the hard decisions that needed to be made. But still, what a guy eh!

Frank the plant: And finally… I now have a desk plant. I’ve wanted one for ages weirdly (mainly gorwing out of a dinosaur plantar pot if I’m honest) and then our office building had some plant people in and they were giving away free plants. I hot-footed it quickly to grab myself one and I named it Frank.Apparently it’s a jade tree plant, which is essentially a “starter” plant for idiots. It’s tough to kill it basically. This is ideal for this gardening novice!

As much as I desperately want to avoid theobvious… It was rather hot this weekend, eh!

On Saturday morning I headed to where I always head Monday to Friday, Lakeside North Habour where Wiggle is based. But this time it was for the Lakeside parkrun that’s based there. It goes around the lake in an out and back style affair which is super flat and scenic. My friend, Kyle, wanted to get a quicker time (his current PB was 21:35 and he wanted closer to 21 minutes) and I offered to try and help him.

I got to Lakeside at 8.15, a good 15 minutes before I was meeting Kyle, as I forgot that the drive would be so much quicker as it was Saturday. So I decided to do a bit of a warm-up. My aim was to run about a mile but as I got to 0.8 miles I got to a gate that was usually open but was now locked. I did try shaking the gate a bit – as you do, in the most ineffectual way possible, as if it’s going to change the fact that there’s a large padlock on it. I also managed to get grease on my hand and then onto my face. I only realised this when I got to the toilet just before parkrun and realised I looked like I was attempting some sort of tribal face paint.

Anyway, the locked gate meant I had to run back the way I came. This was slightly pushing my time but luckily I wasn’t late and soon met up with Kyle.

Kyle and I then went and did a warm-up together. I said to Kyle that it was probably best we warmed up if he wanted to go guns blazing for the 5k. From experience I know that it usually takes half a mile to get into the groove. Ha, listen to me thinking I know what I’m talking about!After the warm-up we loitered under the trees to keep out of the sun, which was really beaming down now. We saw a camera crew and I asked them what they were up to. They said they were filming the volunteers to help spread the word. Very cool.

We lined up and then we were off. I’d said to Kyle it was his run and if I was holding him back then just to go because he wanted the time. I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel (they’ve been feeling quite heavy and tired lately) and I’d hate to stop him getting a good time. Anyway, as we begun he did peel off from me and I shouted at him to keep going as I couldn’t’ catch up. I seem to have a reoccurring trend of guys ditching me mid-parkrun, eh 😉 Something about me I guess.

The run felt really hard actually. It’s funny because I thought since getting my PB things would feel easier, but what lies! Trying to run sub-7 minutes still feels just as hard, let alone going sub 6.30s. After the first mile I managed to catch back up to Kyle. We were both on the struggle bus but at least we were struggling together.

Photo Credit: Lakeside parkrun Facebook page

I found myself as the second female – the first female flying ahead! The sun was beating down and felt very hot but we were now on the way back. I didn’t want to be that annoying person continually telling someone to keep pushing and as I peeled slightly ahead of Kyle I hoped it would be good motivation to keep going.

The final straight along the tarmac path is a nice way to finish and a normal running area where Kyle and I finish our runches. I was also certain Kyle would be fine at the end as he has a great sprint finish so I didn’t feel too bad being slightly ahead.In the end I got 21:05, second female, and Kyle got 21:24 – smashing his PB by 11 seconds. We both found it a tough run. Super warm and just very draining. But we got it done.We asked a guy to take our photo to commemorate the PB and fun run (fun? Ehhh) and hilariously the guy took two selfies of himself before taking our photo. I didn’t realise until later and wondered if he had done it on purpose or not.

We then headed to the Starbucks, literally a thirty second walk away, and had a a nice chilled out coffee enjoying the lovely air conditioning, both trying not to sweat too much on the furniture.Lakeside is not my favourite parkrun but it is a nice one. Flat and pretty with the lake and the trees, but with three complete turnarounds it’s a tough one to keep your memento going. It’s nice that it has proper toilets and a Starbucks though. Very handy.

Later after a quick shower I headed to go shopping with my mum. I needed to take back a bikini to Victoria’s Secret which honest to god would never see the light of day. Awful. Never, ever buy anything you see on Instagram! It worked out really well in my favour though in the end. Because I bought it online this is apparently to do with the US store and not the UK store. So when it was put through as a refund, despite paying £16 for it I actually got £24.50 for it! It was store credit but that’s fine because I love that shop so didn’t struggle to find anything. Happy days.

That evening I went to Nando’s (a basic but firm favourite of mine) and saw Deadpool 2. The story-line can only be described as chaotic but it was quite funny.

Not as good as Deadpool but still worth a watch if you like that kind of thing. It was a good evening 🙂 I certainly feel like I’m getting up to date on my cinema visits now. Next up Jurassic World!

How was your weekend?

What have you see at the cinema recently?

Have you ever helped anyone to get a PB? To be honest, Kyle would have managed fine on his own I think!

So I finished my last day at work last Wednesday. It was definitely a bittersweet. I’ve worked there for over five and a half years. I remember joining and being this timid, terrified girl…unsure of everything, so quiet and afraid. I walked out of there on Wednesday confident, self-assured and ready for my next challenge. I’ll miss so many of the people I worked with but I’m looking forward to working with a new bunch of people and hopefully making some friends!

I had Thursday and Friday off, which was just amazing. I haven’t had a proper couple of days where I literally have nothing planned for ages. I decided to do a day of sorting schizz out in the spirit of new beginnings and all that. I also agreed to help my parents sort out their garage and under-the-stairs cupboard (a blackhole for shoes, bags and coats).

My dad took off the Friday as well and hired a skip which helped the situation. I mean, I love my parents but they just seemed to hoard so much junk. I’m not even joking when I say we took FOUR black bags of shoes to charity. Who has time to wear that many shoes?? And their garage is just full of random rubbish and charity-shop worthy items that for some reason my parents thought to keep hold of. NO ONE NEEDS THREE TOOLKITS. This is probably one of the main reasons I’m not a sentimental person when it comes to physical things and mementos. There are few items I’m irrationally attached to. All about that minimalist lifestyle (leggings aside of course. You can NEVER have too many leggings. Honest).

Found some rather hilarious old photos of my sister, mum and I.

I mean, those hair styles…

As I was still not running it meant I could have some lovely lie-ins and then go to the gym at a more reasonable time than I usually would. I was given an Amazon gift voucher from work as part of my leaving present so I decided to buy and download some movies I’ve been wanting to see so I could make time on the elliptical machine far more bearable.

I’ve got through Get Out (really creepy but really good) and the Lego Batman Movie (very funny). It’s actually a really good way to stay motivated on that god-awful machine. It also makes me keen to get back on it as I’ll only allow myself to watch these movies on the elliptical machine. Happy days…

On Friday night I went out to a fantastic burger place for some food. I’d heard that The Rockstone pub in Southampton literally did the best burgers around and so was fairly excited to go and eat stupid amounts of food, and of course spend time with good company.

I ordered the “BBCK” burger which was a 10oz burger with Brie, streaky bacon and a cranberry chutney. I also upgraded my fries to bacon dust fries. I mean, seriously.

My partner in crime ordered the “Ban Ki-Mmm” which had Korean pork belly amongst other treats on top. I did get a little food envy on seeing his but mine was SO tasty it was only very brief. He upgraded to sweet potato fries. I have to say, usually I’m not a huge burger fan (I prefer more toppings/protein to carb ratio…), but this was heavenly.

We were both more than happy (and fairly full) on finishing our burgers. By the way, they were impossible to pick up. I did try but failed miserably. 10/10 for effort…not so much for getting covered in sticky cranberry-ness. Though we were full we decided to forgo the pudding on offer at The Rockstone and instead go to the handily located Sprinkles just down the road. Just a small pudding, eh? 😉

I got a cookie dough based sundae (zomggggggg) and he got a baked skillet cookie with ice cream. Mine contained hot cookie dough at the bottom, chocolate and vanilla ice cream and vanilla gelato as well as cookie pieces and molten white chocolate and regular chocolate drizzled on top. Dear god it was good. I couldn’t quite finish it all. For once my stomach said no. But I gave it my best stab! I prioritised the best bits!

So my time off was pretty damn good. I did manage two miles on Sunday to test the leg out… it felt OK but I’m not entirely convinced. More updates on that soon. Things are going pretty well right now (let’s ignore the small car accident I had Tuesday morning *sighs*, again more on that another time!)

My blogging is going to be a bit off-routine for a bit while I find my footing in my new job and adjusting to a new routine. But in the words of Lego, EVERYTHING IS AWESOME

What’s your ideal burger?

What’s your ideal sundae?

If you use cardio machines, how do you motivate yourself to stay on them?

This weekend was my annual uni friends BBQ. We’ve been doing this for 11 years now, which just blows my mind.

It hasn’t always been a BBQ (one time we did a picnic in a park, though I didn’t listen properly and still brought raw food much to everyone’s amusement. Another Anna Stupid Moment), but invariable it is. The weather is usually always good, but annoyingly this year it rained. Ah well, can’t win ’em all.

I drove to Bristol on the Friday evening. It also happened to be the worst time to drive anywhere because there were so many family’s who’s kids had just finished for the year and were off on holiday. So my hour 40 minutes drive turned into 2.5 hours. Joy!

The evening was lovely. We had burritos (steak and chicken). Then followed by our amazing brownie.We’ve been making this brownie since our university days. It’s basically our way of throwing out the rule book and eating pudding exactly how we want (i.e. being a bit piggy and greedy). Straight out of the oven, with a spoon. I blogged the recipe before if you’re interested… this time we added lots of white chocolate and a KitKat Chunky. The KitKat didn’t really work, but it was still AMAZING.

I promptly went into a food coma. We then watched Naked Attraction (if you’ve never seen this programme it’s hilarious but also unbelievably cringey; people choosing dates based entirely on their naked bodies). There was actually a really sweet couple who got together and are still together post-show. Normally they never really work out but this was really cute how well they got on and liked each other. Ah romance 😉 It was a full-on rock and roll evening clearly!

Normally Saturday morning Kate, Jamie and I would go to one of the Bristolian parkruns but as I’m still injured and Kate and Jay haven’t been running much we decided to have a lie-in instead. I did attempt a little run to see how the knee felt but it still pulled so I turned back after half a mile. Frustrating. Instead I walked to Starbucks with one of the others, Charlotte, and we enjoyed the nice weather (which was soon to turn) and a good old natter.

Then our other friend’s arrived with their newborn baby and the BBQ could commence! It was WEIRD seeing my friend with a baby. She’s the first in the group to have had one and it was just bizarre. She’s a proper grown-up now! The baby, Eloise, was very cute (that’s all you’ll get from me on babies). It didn’t change the dynamic of the group at all, which was nice. Eloise just slotted it like the new addition she is. Though babies do, in general, terrify me.I just don’t know what to do with them or how to speak to them… I held her once and then quickly gave her back. Whew. We survived. It was great hearing all the gory details of the birth though. You do need a close friend to tell you the truth about these things I think. Like I said, terrifying.

Then Jamie got ready with the BBQ. Check out the bag of meat!So. Much. Food. This is why I love going to Bristol. They feed me so well 😉There was a selection of chicken thighs and drumsticks, peppered steaks, lamb ribs, pork ribs, pork belly, sausages and burgers. Pretty damn good!Though the weather wasn’t great it was still a fun BBQ. We ate inside around the table which was nice, so we could all easily chat. And they no longer laugh at me when I take photos of food 😉

Obviously I ate too much, but what’s new? We followed the BBQ with Victoria sponge and salted caramel cake (it was recently Shell and Charlotte’s birthday – yes I had a slice of both…and maybe another later) and then BBQ bananas with chocolate sauce. YES.I’m not a huge banana fan but this was really tasty. The banana had gone all gooey and sticky and the chocolate sauce melted into it. SO good. Just slice a line into a banana, roll it up with foil and pop it onto the coals for 15 minutes).

I went home later that day very happy. I mean, ridiculously full but very happy.

The next morning…ah how I’d loved to have joined my friend Mike in his 20 mile run (I’m trying not to panic, trying not to panic) and instead went to the gym where I did 65 minutes on the cross-trainer at a quick clip. I was a sweaty mess by the end and somewhat satisfied with my workout. But not as happy as I’d have been having just done 20 miles! But hey ho, it is what it is.

I’ve found the perfect way to keep entertained on the elliptical machine; watching YouTube and films. I watched To The Bone on Netflix which was interesting. I’d heard about this through the Blogosphere and also on a film podcast. It’s about eating disorders, which isn’t an entirely fun subject but it was actually really good in a weird way. An interesting take on the subject and I thought Keanu Reeves in it was really good. The main female did annoy me a bit but I don’t think she was meant to be entirely likeable. I thought it addressed the issues well but it’d be interesting hearing from someone with more experience on the matter.

Anyway, it’d be nice to run again. My knee does seem much better so it’s frustrating that when it comes to running this isn’t translated. It feels fine in every other aspect but running. So who knows. Cross training is the way forward right now!

I really enjoyed writing the unpopular opinions the other day so I thought I’d do another round, as well as some cool things I’m loving lately. First the unpopular opinions…

I love salad and all vegetables. If half my plate isn’t full of vegetables I feel a bit miffed. In the blogging and fitness world this is not such an unpopular opinion, but perhaps not in the general population. I think it could also be that I’m volume eater and adding vegetables and salad to a dish is a great way to trick my greediness into believing I’m eating more. And that vegetables are super tasty.

I don’t share food. I think this harps back to me being like a squirrel and worrying food will run out. I don’t know where this fear came from because I’ve always been well-fed through my life!

I just don’t share food unless I can guarantee there’s a proper divide and equal proportions of food. And that I still get a significant portion. So if I’ve ever shared food with you, count yourself lucky. To have escaped alive.

I haven’t watched the vast majority of the Marvel movies. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men (not Marvel but superhero-y) and Thor but all the others have passed me by. It might be because I’m not a big Robert Downey Jr. fan but I feel like too much has happened now to catch up.

I like a selfie. Yes it might be narcissistic and vain, but I quite like them. I do a lot on Instagram and it’s more because I like to track progress and keep connected with other people than “omg look at me”. It’s nice when you do it in an interesting place as well. Like, here’s my face plus something more interesting too 😉

Films about animal cruelty get me far more upset than small children cruelty. Don’t get me wrong, the latter does upset me. I’m not entirely heartless! But if a dog dies I will be in pieces. I was really chuffed to find the Hachi statue in Tokyo (actually, the dog was called Hachikō in real life). He was the dog that waited for his owner outside the train station.No film has ever destroyed me as much as that film. I was sobbing. Not delicate little sobs, but full on “I can’t breathe” gasps and shudders. On a coach full of people I didn’t know.

And things I’m loving…

Leisure trainers. Hmm, what? Trainers you don’t run in? What are those?These Nike trainers though are SO comfortable. They’re quite thing and light, so definitely not for running (for me). I wear them to the gym, but I also wear them to the shops and seeing friends. If I’m entirely honest, I’d live in gymwear most of my life. It’s a struggle to wear jeans.

And, I promise they’re not the same shoes, I recently got these Vans:Yes they are very similar colour… but they’re Vans so completely different. Ahem. Anyway they too are super comfortable and handy for leisurewear (leeeeeeeeeeeeesurewear is how I say this in my head).

My new Starbucks mug. I bought this in Tokyo. I’ve never seen a black Starbucks mug. It’s got a very matte feel and says “Starbucks Reserve” on it.It’s a decent size as well. I can’t be dealing with mini-mugs.

Biotrue Eye Products Review

I was recently sent some eye health products from Bausch + Lomb. It’s a bit of a random one I guess but I was keen to do the review because, as some of you might know, last year I had laser eye surgery done. I no longer have to wear contact lenses or glasses – yay! This is still amazing every single day. Though in the morning I will still go to grab my glasses when my alarm goes off, it’s that ingrained.

So these eye products seemed ideal for me to test because, though my eyes have been pretty much 100% perfect since the surgery, they do get a little dry towards the end of the day. I’m sure this isn’t just due to my surgery but also to the fact that I’m staring at a computer screen all day long.

These drops are used to refresh tired or irritable eyes. And they’re not specific for contact lenses. They contain hyaluronic acid, which helps to maintain the natural structures of a healthy eye.The drops are administered using a the “Control Grip system”. It was easy to use – no squirting or great gush of liquid. It literally just drops one tiny drop at a time in a very controlled way. I’ve used quite a few different types of eye drops and these are by far the best at accuracy and not soaking my face or making me look like I’ve watched Hachi again.My eyes felt very refreshed after using these when I finished work. Driving home can be such a pain when you have dry and tired eyes so these helped give a bit of life back into them. My eyes felt more refreshed and, well, moist (apologies, I know that word is awful for people).

The eye mask is to help with eye hygiene and can be used for the management of blepharitis, conjunctivitis or styes when used warm. I can see this fully helping as when I had a stye I used a hot compress (well, a flannel) on my eye for two evenings in a row and it really helped. Using the mask for cold helps relieve headaches.It’s re-usable and moulds to your face thanks (apparently due to the “pearl technology”).

You can put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and then put it over your eyes for some instant relief. It’s very soothing I’ll tell you! And it’s very easy to clean if you’re worried about hygiene.You can also pop it into the freezer for around two hours and use it as a cold relief. It’s super handy and easy to use.

The next product are the cleansing wipes. These are a safe and hygienic way to gently clean your eyelids and eyelashes without damaging the delicate tear film. Again this can be used as part of the treatment for blepharitis and cleaning any “crustiness” caused by infections or allergies.To keep everything sterile and from avoiding contamination between the eyes, the wipes are individually wrapped. The wipes don’t contain detergents or preservatives.The wipes are quite refreshing, don’t sting or feel chemically in any way. They do make your eyes feel very slightly sticky, but only briefly. Otherwise they’re great! Find the products from Superdrug or online.

Have you ever had any eye issues?

Do you have a favourite mug? And optimal mug size?

Are you on board with leisurewear?

**Full Disclaimer: I was sent the eye products for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**